The drinks with your meal may be included in the cost per head charged by your reception venue or caterer. This may work out more cost effective than supplying your own drinks, especially
if this incurs corkage charges. Otherwise, most wine merchants
and off-licences will not only offer you advice, but bulk discounts, sale-or-return, free delivery
and glass hire if necessary, too.
Whilst Champagne is the traditional wedding drink, to serve it all day will be very expensive. More usually  nowadays even the toast and the cutting of the cake drink is a sparkling wine and chosen carefully, it can be equally as good.
The welcoming drink can be Pimms, Bucks Fizz or Sangria, with plenty of orange juice and mineral water on offer too. Alternatively, in the summer a fruit punch and in the winter, a mulled wine.
Nowadays, not too much emphasis is placed on serving red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat. Generally it is safest to order twice as much white wine as red. Buy the wine you can afford and dont fall into the trap of providing a huge choice.
(Doux is sweet; Brut is very dry; Sec is dry and Demi- sec is medium-dry.)
A rough guide to the amounts needed: Sparkling wine or Champagne: 6 glasses per 70cl bottle; two glasses per   head. Table wine: allow approximately half a bottle per head.
Tea and coffee on tap will be welcome throughout the day, as will soft drinks, non-alcoholic drinks and mineral water.
A pay bar is acceptable. On your invitations you could state "Pay bar after 7.00pm" to save any confusion. Or you can set a "drinks limit" behind the bar, after which your guests buy their own.
- Check the prices of bar drinks at your reception - some guests could be disgruntled if drinks are overpriced
- Ask about corkage charges
- Organise a mobile bar for non- licensed premises
- Check what time the bar closes - if its at 11pm dont book your DJ til 1am
- Determine the "drinks limit" for free drinks
- Watch your budget - buy drink you can afford
- Have two bottles of white wine to every red
|